WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE POLITICAL DECISIONS. 355 



It must be added that the distinction between " constitutional 

 power " and " ability to effect certain results " is one often dif- 

 ficult to draw in practice, though doubtless valid in theory. If, for 

 instance, the President has the " ability to effect certain results " 

 for which Congress is given express power, through the exercise 

 of his own undoubted constitutional powers, it would not seem far 

 from the truth to state that the constitutional powers of Congress 

 and the President overlap. The same end may often be attained by 

 different means. 



A. The Pozvcr to Recognise Foreign States, Governments, and 



Belligerency. 



ig2. The Power of Recognition. 



The President as the representative organ has the power to rec- 

 ognize facts in international relations. He has recognized foreign 

 states by receiving diplomatic officers or granting exequators to 

 consuls from them, and by sending diplomatic officers or commis- 

 sioners to them.^^ He has, by diplomatic correspondence through 

 the Department of State, recognized acquisitions of territory and 

 the establishment of protectorates by existing states.^* Likewise, 

 beginning with the recognition of the French revolutionary gov- 

 ernment through reception of Citizen Genet in 1793, the President 

 has recognized new governments and he has refused to recognize 

 de facto governments, thereby contributing to their ultimate down- 

 fall, as was the case with the Huerta government in Mexico and the 

 Tinoco government in Costa Rica.^^ The President has recognized 

 the existence of foreign war through proclamation of neutrality. 

 Though the first such proclamation, issued in 1793 by Washington, 

 was vigorously attacked by Jefferson and Madison, who considered 

 it beyond his powers and contrary to the French alliance treaty of 

 1778, the precedent has been followed in all subsequent foreign 

 wars, both international and civil. ^'^ The President has also held 



^3 Moore, Digest, i: 74-119. 



"Williams v. Suffolk Ins. Co., 13 Pet. 415. 



^5 Moore, Digest, i: 164; Moore, Principles of Am. Diplomacy, 213-225. 



16 Moore, Digest, i: 164; Corwin, op. cit., pp. 7-28. 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC, VOL. LX., .X, MARCH I3, I922, 



